Great Babyfaces and Great Heels: What Makes Them?

[Nighthawk]

It's a weird hobby to have, and it's one that's not nearly as popular as it was severla years ago, but I am a proud e-fedder. And in doing that, and in watching as much wrestling as I have to make sure I don't stink at my hobby, I've noticed the differences in how babyfaces and heels are portrayed from when I was a young wrestling fan (the 80's) to now. Even the most popular guys, the guys everyone agrees are the top faces on the card, are coarser now. Maybe this is the ECW and Attitude Era's lasting side-effect, where no one can be the sort of white meat babyface that Steamboat, Santana, or even Sting would have been.

 

Conversely, as I get older, I find myself realizing just how often the heels of current WWE seem to be entirely justified in their opinions of things. E.G., Alberto Del Rio was right to be angry at Sheamus for stealing his car, joyriding in it, and allegedly soiling it.

 

Question: What makes a good babyface and a good heel? What character traits should each one have? And do you notice the differences I spoke about?

[flyonthewall2983]

[dexstar]

I think the key, no matter the style, is integrity to the character. Austin was a great face not because he broke rules, but because his character (at least during the really hot period) had total integrity. You cheer for him because he straight up says "don't trust me", and then he backs that up. No compromise. I think that's a recurring thing for hot faces/heels in any era. A basic artistic principle in any genre really.

 

I'm not sure the faces now are still "coarse" though - I'd argue Cena/Bryan are both pretty white bread. Bryan doesn't do anything "wrong" - he just appeals to the people and what's right. Cena never really heels.

 

The Sheamus thing, while I get where you are coming from, I also don't view as a "heelish" action - Del Rio was a prick, he was a bully, and Sheamus turned it around on him in a humorous way.

 

Not to go too-far off your topic, but what e-feds are still around? I used to do it in the mid-late 90s. Didn't know any kept it up. It's a fun hobby.

[DMJ]

I think Ric Flair had all the greatest heel qualities one could have. Cowardly at times, but also impossible to outsmart. Vince McMahon in the Attitude Era had this too. I like dominant heels too, but personaly, I kinda like the heel template set forth by Flair (but probably others before him) that Edge and Jericho nicked. Beatable, but so darn crafty that they could believably topple any goody two shoes.

 

To me, its that believability that is even more important than whether or not their character is justified. I'm not sure Flair was ever justified in his screwing over top babyfaces (I guess his motivation was to stay champ), but it was so much more fun to root against him when you knew that, on any day, someone like Rick Steiner or Brian Pillman would have his number.

 

This is where the current product has gone wrong, in my eyes - nobody believes Alberto Del Rio, even if cheats, can beat John Cena.

[Nighthawk]

I think the key, no matter the style, is integrity to the character. Austin was a great face not because he broke rules, but because his character (at least during the really hot period) had total integrity. You cheer for him because he straight up says "don't trust me", and then he backs that up. No compromise. I think that's a recurring thing for hot faces/heels in any era. A basic artistic principle in any genre really.

 

I'm not sure the faces now are still "coarse" though - I'd argue Cena/Bryan are both pretty white bread. Bryan doesn't do anything "wrong" - he just appeals to the people and what's right. Cena never really heels.

 

The Sheamus thing, while I get where you are coming from, I also don't view as a "heelish" action - Del Rio was a prick, he was a bully, and Sheamus turned it around on him in a humorous way.

 

Not to go too-far off your topic, but what e-feds are still around? I used to do it in the mid-late 90s. Didn't know any kept it up. It's a fun hobby.

PWX, which is the one where I am, is the one i know off the top of my head. Roughkut might provide you some good options.

[flyonthewall2983]

Communication, through verbal skills and body language (selling particularly). That goes both ways, really.

[Nighthawk]

Communication, through verbal skills and body language (selling particularly). That goes both ways, really.

 

I meant more in terms of character, not ring work.

[dawho5]

I would agree that great heels are very often the really crafty guys. Flair and Heenan come to mind pretty quickly. The other thing that makes a great heel to me is how vicious their personality is. It's not that they attack weaknesses and openings. Everyone does that. It's that they attack those openings and weaknesses to extreme levels, which tends to make you root against them. As far as what makes great faces, it's whatever it is they have that the crowd really wants to get behind. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what it is about Cena that the WWE fans latched onto and have really never let go of for over a decade. But they did. Same for any of the really big iconic faces. What did Liger have that made him THE face in Japanese juniors wrestling? Yeah, Misawa was chosen to be booked as the ace, but why did the fans get so insanely behind him in that role? What made fans want to see Hogan so badly? Those kinds of things are really undefinable to me, but to be a really top-notch face they are necessary. Heels can be more "created" than faces can be, or so I think.

[Badlittlekitten]

I'm still suffering from a St Paddy hangover too much to explain things properly, but, for me, the king of the crafty heels is Buddy Rose. He's peerless at the whole stooge heel act as well. And he's offensively dynamic and viscous enough to come across as a legit threat in the ring also. That's why I love Arn Anderson so much. He's the most ridiculous and funny stooge there is but at a flick of a switch you completely buy him as a mean tough bastard.

 

I miss big monster heels. That's something WWE is missing right now. Some massive fucker that beats the shit out of the baby and literally squashes him. Somebody who's believable and is also capable of having good/ fun matches (so that excludes a Brodus Clay push. And Kane). I want Vader. Hell, I'd love it if WWE had an Abdullah Butcher type attraction whose matches were all booked as out of control brawls with blood and depravity and forks down the trousers. More wrestlers should have signature weapons. That's what I love about the joshi heels. Actually, now I thought about it, - Dump Matsumoto is the greatest heel of al time.

 

Apologies to the OP, I'm just rambling nonsense. To give a shit and generic answer; what makes a good heel/face is believability. Especially the sense that the wrestler believes in the character they're portraying. That's why Cena's the biggest star. That's why I don't think Bryan or Punk or Sheamus can ever get near to his level as babyfaces. You get a feeling that they find this whole wrestling thing quite silly. Too much smirking and nudge-nudge-wink-ing to the camera. A sense that they're playing heroes rather than being them.

[FedEx227]

I've been talking about this at length on recent podcasts and on Twitter since I believe true heels are starting to make a comeback to mainstream wrestling. Which to me is heels that are bad, but think they are right. Heels that clearly do the wrong thing, but they think they are doing the right thing. For years and years, WWE focused on guys that were evil to be evil. Someone like Edge knew he was being a dickhead and didn't care, his gimmick was I'm an asshole.

 

The best heels are always justifying their actions to themselves. Flair and The Horsemen would lose a match then talk a few days later like they never lost. They are irrationally naive to themselves which makes us mad because they are lying or being deceiving.

[rainmakerrtv]

I'm still suffering from a St Paddy hangover too much to explain things properly, but, for me, the king of the crafty heels is Buddy Rose. He's peerless at the whole stooge heel act as well. And he's offensively dynamic and viscous enough to come across as a legit threat in the ring also. That's why I love Arn Anderson so much. He's the most ridiculous and funny stooge there is but at a flick of a switch you completely buy him as a mean tough bastard.

 

 

This is the exact reason why I consider Arn Anderson one of the two greatest heels of all time ... he could be both a badass and a pussy in the same match, and it always had credibility and it always made sense. The other greatest heel in my view was Tully Blanchard, but it's hard for me to pin down exactly what it does that is so much better than other heels, it is pure emotional. Decades later from the original match and whenever he comes on my TV on a comp, I want to punch him in his smug, stupid face. His very existince makes my blood boil in seething hatred. That is a great heel.